Procrastination: Health Is Not Going to Happen On Its Own

So, how goes your New Year’s Resolution for being healthy? Mine, I am stuck in the “procrastination” zone. I know, it’s not really a good place to be if I want to look amazing by summer. In reality, it’s this zone that keeps a lot of us from being healthy. What can you do when you get stuck in a rut and don’t really feel like putting in the effort?

Finding Ways to Stop Procrastination

When researching material for this website, I see an obvious trend that happens every year. Search traffic for health and fitness skyrockets by January 4th. Does this mean that all of these people are getting on the bandwagon for healthy living? Not necessarily.

You can research a thing and still decide to put it off until tomorrow.

It’s this mindset that prevents people from succeeding in just about any task. Whether it’s health and fitness or learning how to program an Android app, it all comes down to a lack of effort. What can you do to change this frame of mind and get more out of your life?

Getting to Bed Earlier

Sleep is very important to health for obvious reasons. However, I’ve also found that a lack of sleep directly affects my mood first thing in the morning. It takes longer to get the day started and the level of motivation is relatively low. In fact, I found that I get less done on the days that I get 5.5 hours of sleep than days where I get more than seven.

This is something that has turned into quite a habit for me. I was doing really well until the turn of the new year. Now, I am staying up later and later. Last night was especially bad as I found myself tossing and turning for more than an hour before finally passing out.

I do have a few stressful things going on in my life, but I need to see if I can get myself to actually sleep before 11:00 every night. Perhaps if I get back on a schedule of getting up at six to go for a walk or exercise. For the past several weeks, I’ve been slacking in that department.

Maintain Daily Objectives

I have plenty of small goals that are easily achievable every day. Unfortunately, I’ve been putting them off. I’ll start off strong in the morning but then get to a point where I just don’t care. And this is the wrong mindset to keep.

One of the biggest issues I have is midnight munching. I find myself snacking far too much in the middle of the night, which plays into why I’m not losing weight very quickly. This plays into going to bed at a reasonable time. If I was in bed by 10, I could save myself several hundred calories every night.

Instead of thinking that I’ll do better tomorrow, I need to get into the mindset to doing better today. The more I accomplish now, the less I’ll have to do later on. And this is true for procrastination in any job or task.

Before long, deadlines will arrive and you’ll find yourself scrambling to accomplish your goals. Unfortunately, there’s not much scrambling that can be done when it comes to health. The deadline is actually that; death.

Realizing Bad Habits and Avoiding Them

A habit can be any behavior or activity that becomes second nature for you to do on a regular basis. For many, this involves the common social habits of smoking or drinking. But what about the habits you didn’t realize were repeating behaviors?

Using myself as an example, I have a habit of literally forcing myself to stay awake to watch that one last episode of Arrow on Netflix. Or perhaps my habit of hitting the snooze button at six in the morning instead of getting up. There are a lot of habits I do throughout the day that fuel procrastination.

The hardest part is identifying these habits and then moving past them. Sure, I like binge watching stuff online. But do I like it more than sleep? The point can be argued for, “Yes.” However, I know deep down that it’s simply not true. For instance, I love sleep. I’m constantly looking forward to dreaming…even though I haven’t been able to remember most of them lately.

What a lot of people don’t realize is that healthy habits can be developed just as well as bad ones. For instance, I was in the habit of getting a glass of water with every cup of coffee. Once you start repeating a behavior, it may form into a habitual part of your life for the better.

The trick is just getting yourself to that point.

Remembering to Do Certain Things

When you’re trying to get yourself into certain habits for health, procrastination may come in the form of forgetfulness. You could have great intentions to walk a mile every day or break a few records doing sit ups. However, you need to remember to do these tasks if you want to develop a habit of them.

This is one of my biggest issues. I’ll have good intentions to focus on health and fitness but simply forget to do them. By the time I remember, I feel that it’s too late to do anything about it. And this is the heart of the problem. In reality, a lot of things I forget about in the morning can be fixed at any time of the day.

Giving myself reminders of tasks seems to work to an extent. Unfortunately, I’ll often set the tasks aside for a moment with the intention of doing it but then forget about it five minutes later. I need to get into the habit of just doing certain things right away regardless of what is going on.

Stop Procrastinating, It’s Not Getting You Anywhere

I think I wrote this post more for myself than anyone else. There are a lot of things that I need to work through at the moment, and procrastination is one of them. It makes a difference when I actually write it to see on the blog. Not to mention that I give myself all kinds of good ideas when I’m writing.

In a world of instant gratification, you’d think fewer people would get sucked into procrastination. For me, I think I can be far too lazy for my liking. It’s sad to think that I could have looked like Captain America by now if I would have just stuck to my initial plans.

However, there is no sense in dwelling on what I should have done. Instead, I need to focus on what I’m going to do. After all, I cannot change the past. I can change my future…and so can you.

Michael Brockbank

Michael is a work at home father who has completed a wide assortment of writing regarding various topics. Currently, he is working to achieve a weight loss goal and improve health in order to cross the state of Colorado on bicycle.